Council briefs
Relocation of climbing club moves forward
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife City Council will vote on Sept. 26 whether to include a request for $185,050 from the Yellowknife Climbing Club in its 2017 draft budget.
Shaheed Livingstone climbs the bouldering wall at the Yellowknife Climbing Club's facility in Kam Lake in 2014. The club has succeeded in having city council look at its request for $185,050 to move the club and its climbing wall to the Fieldhouse. Council will decide in two weeks whether to include the request as part of its 2017 draft budget. - NNSL file photo |
The club has asked for the funding in order to relocate from its current site in the basement of the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts building on Kam Lake Road to the lobby of the Fieldhouse.
Club president Eric Binion made a fresh presentation to the city's Municipal Services Committee on Monday, saying the money would cover the entire relocation and he therefore understands that it may be impossible for the city to come up with the full amount due to other funding priorities. However, he added that getting the request onto the draft budget would be an important first step.
"Initially, city staff had proposed it be postponed until some future budgets which was kind of inconclusive but council has now decided that it can be a budget line item this year," Binion said. "It doesn't mean too much at this point because they still have to determine the budget in December and it can be voted off then. But at least we have some more progress moving forward here and I think the club will be pretty happy."
Binion said he was also encouraged by the committee's decision to add to the Sept. 26 council agenda a proposal to develop a memorandum of understanding between the city and the climbing club, spelling out exactly how the club's climbing wall relocation would happen. He said that will make the club's fundraising efforts more clear and viable.
Binion added the club has scaled back its initial proposal made to council last May including making the climbing wall slightly smaller.
Binion estimated that some 1,800 people have used the club's climbing wall in the previous 12 months. The club formed as a non-for-profit society in 2010. It currently operates the bouldering wall in the evenings during the week. It is hoped that if it does relocate to the Fieldhouse that those hours would be expanded. The club also does outdoor climbing in several locations in and around the city including Cameron Falls and Tartan Rapids, according to its website.
Council to hear about benches from city staff
A motion passed at Monday night's council meeting that calls for city administration to report back to council by Nov. 15 on the issues it says it has in keeping the city's public benches clean.
The motion follows the removal of a city bench from 50 Street near Franklin Avenue last month without council's approval. Council called for the bench to be returned, which it was. Coun. Julian Morse introduced the motion.
"The intent of the motion was to direct administration to come back to council with information on issues surrounding the maintenance of the benches downtown," Morse said. "The reason the motion was brought forward is because administration had stated that they were having issues maintaining the benches and that's why they wanted them removed."
Last month, the city's facilities manager Dave Hurley defended the city's decision to remove the bench, saying it was because of issues of cleanliness and abuse.
No interest in taking over part of Highway 4
The City of Yellowknife will not be pursuing control of Highway 4 between 49 Avenue and Niven Gate from the territorial government.
A motion was on the table at Monday night's meeting calling for city administration to obtain an update from the minister of Transportation on the repair and transfer of that part of the highway to the city. However, the motion was defeated. Coun. Niels Konge was among those voting against it.
"There has been years and years of talk about the GNWT transferring that section of highway over to the city. As a councillor, I don't understand why the hell we would want to take on a liability, a roadway, because roadways cost money to maintain - they cost money to fix," Konge said.
"It's not like we're getting a piece of highway to take us to our next new subdivision. The subdivison is already built."
Konge said as he understands it, there are people who want the city to take over that stretch of road so a walking path can be built alongside it and a traffic light could be put at Niven Gate.
He said he is not sure the city could not move forward with those plans without actually having responsibility for that stretch of highway.
Mayor Mark Heyck told Yellowknifer in an e-mail that the city continues to talk with the GNWT about that stretch of highway, but if council wants to pursue taking over that stretch, then a councillor would have to introduce a new motion directing administration to undertake negotiations with the territorial government.
